Lloyd Austin 911 call shows aide wanted no ‘lights and sirens’ for ambulance pickup

WASHINGTON – He put the “secret” in “secretary.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took great pains to keep quiet his Jan. 1 medical emergency that landed him in the hospital for two weeks, with an aide asking 911 operators to have an ambulance pick the 70-year-old up without turning on its lights and sirens.

“Can I ask – can the ambulance not show up with lights and sirens?” the staffer said in the recording, first obtained by The Daily Beast, adding: “Um, we’re trying to remain a little subtle.”

The dispatcher agreed to pass on the message, noting that “usually when they turn into a residential neighborhood, they’ll turn them off.”

However, the operator added that the law in Virginia, where Austin lives, requires EMTs to use the lights and sirens on main streets and major thoroughfares.

It was that same focus on subtlety that landed the deeply private Austin in trouble Jan. 5, when it was revealed that the secretary failed to notify his colleagues at the Pentagon – and his boss in the White House – of his hospitalization.

After Austin was rushed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. in severe pain from a urinary tract infection – a complication from a prostatectomy he had undergone Dec. 22 – he quietly transferred his authority to Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks on Jan. 2 — without telling her or any of his other Pentagon colleagues of the reason behind it.

Austin also failed to tell the White House that he had transferred his authorities to Hicks, later doing so upon finally notifying President Biden of his hospitalization on Jan. 4.

But the full story didn’t come out until Jan. 9, when Austin’s Walter Reed doctors released a statement revealing his prostate cancer diagnosis and earlier surgery – which was news to both the Pentagon and the White House.

His secrecy frustrated many in Washington, prompting both Republican and Democrat lawmakers to call for his resignation. Biden has said he intends to keep Austin as defense secretary,

Austin remained in the hospital until Monday, working through most of his 15-day stay – even participating in the planning of an airstrike on Houthi forces in Yemen attacking Red Sea shipping, according to the Pentagon.

He is now working from home and undergoing physical therapy until his is fully recuperated, the Pentagon said Monday.

Prostate cancer is highly survivable and affects one in every eight American men in their lifetimes, according to the American Cancer Society. In a statement Monday, Austin’s doctors said “his strength is rebounding.”

“Secretary Austin’s prostate cancer was treated early and effectively, and his prognosis is excellent,” his doctors said. “He has no planned further treatment for his cancer other than regular post-prostatectomy surveillance.”